Nic's Hockey

My favourite hockey move is The Datsyukian Deke. This deke is the most magnificent move I’ve ever seen a hockey player perform on more than one occasion. When performed properly this move sends the goalie to the other side of the net, giving the player a completely empty net to score on. Also with Datsyuk sending the goalie to the other side of the net he usually shelf the puck just for extra style points.

The trick to this deke is doing everything very quickly and at the last possible moment. This forces the goalie to react to your fake because if he doesn’t react you could score (only if of course you weren’t faking the shot).

1.Skate with the puck in front of your body, this tells the goalie you have to either deke left or deke right and keeps him in the center of the net

2.When you get to about the hash marks you move the puck to your shooting side. This tells the goalie you are probably going to shoot, he moves over a bit to your shooting side to line up with the puck

3.Show some blade and push the puck towards the side (whatever your shooting side is) of the net. This forces the goalie to attempt to save the potential shot

4.At the very last second roll the blade over and catch the puck with the back of your blade while turning your front skate

5.Now with the puck on the back of the blade of your stick, and your skate turned across the crease you pull the puck back, cut across the top of the crease and watch the goalie sprawl out with no chance in stopping you from scoring on him.

6.Score on the empty net

Make sure you change up the move due to one time I did the move on this goalie so many times that he stopped me with a poke-check for the rest of the game.

1. Don’t look down.

When I first started hockey I spend most of the time looking at my feet rather than in the direction that I’m heading towards. My skates weren’t going anywhere and I still did it, It was a bad habit. It cost my team lots of goals and turnovers. I was putting my full potential to waste. Over time I practice keeping my head while skating and stick handling and made me a better overall player.

2. Get a good paire of skates.

If you’re just stepping on the ice for the first time, then renting a pair of skates at the center is fine. However, if you continue going on the ice then buying a good pair of skates is crucial. The rental skates at the center don’t have the best support, don’t have good sharpening but most importantly they don’t fit you. So, buying proper skates that fit your skating time will improve that skill.

3. Tie your skates comfortably

When I was little, I always let my dad tie my skates. It was the right thing to do, however, he never tied it right. It was way to tight. Then I learned how to tie my own skates and found the perfect balance of tightness. This made my skating not only more comfortable but a better skater overall. You have to make sure that your skates are not too tight or your feet will likely go numb while having your skates too loose will not provide the proper support for your ankles.

4. Find the best sharpening that fits you.

For many years I stade at the same sharpening. It was called regular and that’s the only one that I thought was out there. Then one day my coach asked my dad what sharpening my skate was. The reason is, I was falling a lot. It wasn’t because I kept on losing an edge but, it was due to my skates kept weren’t sharp enough. We were confused due to we literally just got my skates sharpened. However, we went to a skate sharpening place and got a full list of different sharping. We picked the one sharper than before and made my life ten times easier. I was flying on the ice and could stop and lean sharply. As my tip, find the perfect sharpening that is not only comfortable but efficient for your skating type.

5. Profiling that fits your position

Just like sharpening, there are different types of profiling. This isn’t as important but will give you the advantage that other players might not have. Profiling is changing the amount of blade that comes of contact with the ice. This is made by changing the shape (radius) of your blade. My profile was made for forwards. This means that my radius is bigger at the back of my skate which gives me the forward lean. For defence, they should get a radius bigger at the front. This gives them the back lean which make them skate much faster backwards. Even goalies have profiling. Depending on the profile you choose, it can help with acceleration, more straight away speed, a quicker turning radius, increased agility and there are additional benefits like greater stability and even a reduction of muscle fatigue. Increasing the amount of steel on the ice would increase the gliding speed you could achieve, however, decrease your turning ability.

6. Stick Length that

The first stick that I got was a good inch taller me. There was a reason for that I was defence. This allowed me to have a stronger slapshot, longer reach but less puck control. As the years went by, I switched to forward. Due to I need good puck control, strong and quick wrist shots, I need to shrink my stick between my chin and my eyes. With that in mind, each position needs a different size stick for the maximum efficiency.

Hockey is the undisputed best sport on the planet. Hockey contains aspects that no other sport have. This article can be a bit biased, however, I am certain that I can convince you why hockey is the best. Here are some lists of things that hockey is the greatest sport on earth.

1. Its played on a giant sheet of ice.

What do football, soccer and basketball have in common? They are all played on a solid piece of ground. Athletes who play those sports play with a typical pair of shoes. They are not sharp and aren’t blades of steel that fit on the bottom of your feet. Being a hockey player takes a ton of athleticism, you need a great amount of balance due to hockey players are combined with speed and agility. They need to manage to stay upright on a large sheet of ice. If that’s not skill, I don’t know what is.

2.  Players are able to control the game

Most major sports are all controlled by referees or umpires. Hockey players have the game in the palm of there hands, however, to a certain extent. But still, the ability for them to control the game is on a whole different level. Hockey players can speed it up, slow it down, or shake things up with massive hits and fights. The control ability makes it much more entertaining to watch.

3. Hockey is a team sport.

There are many sports that are considered as a TEAM SPORT but sometimes excluded by an individual player. Football has quarterbacks, baseball has pitchers, hockey has a team. Although they are players who are considered as superstars in a hockey team, it is impossible for a team to win unless they play together. Everybody needs to be on the same page if they want things to work. After all, there is no “I” in “hockey”.

4. The speed

No sport comes to a fraction close to the speed of hockey. Everything in hockey is high intensity and fast pace: the 100 miles per hour slap shots,  the game pace, the players. Most other sports are at a glacial pace in comparison to hockey. There’s no time to doze off, something is always happening and if you blink, chances are you’ll miss it.  This is my main reason why hockey is better the most sports out there.

5. Hockey players are warriors.

There is no question, hockey players are the toughest athletes out there. Back in the day, hockey players played without a mask, including the goalies. There were pucks flying towards the goalies face without equipment. The goalies weren’t even complaining about it. Even today hockey players are still warriors. They get blasted in the face with a puck and keep playing. There were hockey players who broke bones on the ice and continue to play. Rich Peverley literally died for a few seconds on the ice and after revived, he went back onto the ice.

Basketball players sit out with an ingrown fingernail. Baseball players refuse to play because of blisters and don’t let me talk about soccer. Hockey players are asked to go back on the ice after getting there face stitched back up. Who is Hercules when hockey players exist.

There is an infinite amount of reasons why hockey over other sports. But, the speed, the team, the ability to control the game, where the sport is played and the physicality of the players are my main reasons why I chose hockey over other sports. However, this article shouldn’t discourage you from the sport you love, this is a biased article and it shows my opinion.

One of my favourite hockey quote is “the best offensive is the defence”. When I first started hockey I was training to be a defenceman. I had my skates profiled for a defenceman, my stick was bigger than me for a defenceman and I had the knowledge of a defenceman. However, I was a very bad defenceman. I always had the urge to attack for the puck. This is bad because if they beat me to the puck there is no chance for me to get it back. They will just blow straight by me. All of my coaches hated me for that.

So, in my third year of hockey, I switched to a centerman. The centerman is the most important position in hockey. The centerman is the “support man” this means he is helping out the other players when they are in trouble, the centerman is also considered the quarterback due to he needs to win faceoffs, and lead breakouts. The wingers typically stick to their side of the ice, however, the centermen has more freedom to roam. Even though the centerman covers the most amount of ice (and usually does the most skating) that does not mean you can just skate around and hope you get the puck. The duties as a centerman are to win faceoffs, cause trouble in front of the other teams net, stop players and pucks in front of your own net, score goals, make passes, help out your wingers, lead break-outs and backcheck. Lots of backchecking.

So for the past years, I practiced and learned the skills to be a centerman and continue to pursue that direction. I am thankful for taking that risk and continue to stand by the quote (The best offensive is the best defence).

Requirements/tips:

• A huge requirement for being a centerman is learning the right strategies and techniques to win faceoffs. A good centerman should win 75% of faceoffs. Winning faceoffs isn’t all about pulling the puck back to the D but you can also win a faceoff by tieing the man up. Make a plan with your winger to rush in as soon as the puck drops. The centerman will be tied up and you can either push the puck to the D or go forward with an odd-man rush.
• Having good stamina is crucial to all positions in hockey, however, the centerman is just on a whole new level. The centerman is everywhere, it has no limitations like wingers, who have stayed on their own side of the ice. They are always on the puck trying to score or get the puck back from the opponents. With all that, excellent stamina is crucial and to improve it a daily jog around your block can hugely enhance it.
• Therefore, being an excellent centerman takes a lot of practice, knowledge and experience. You need to be able to win faceoffs, cause trouble in front of the other teams net, stop players and pucks in front of your own net, score goals, make passes, help out your wingers and lead break-outs and backcheck.

I’ve played hockey for several years and has a huge contribution to my life. Hockey benefits my life in many areas. This includes having friends, staying active and be mentally healthy.

Having friends is essential in everybody’s life. Friends can vary from people you see on the street to people you socialize daily. I started hockey in the second year of novice or at the age of 7, and I’m still continuing at the age of 14. I’ve made an abundant amount of friends over the past years. Having friends helps with dealing with stress, make better lifestyle choices that keep us strong, and allow us to rebound from health issues. Hockey also helps me collaborate and socialize with my friends. Hockey is a very collaborative sport, without communication your team will just break apart. So, I talk to my teammates a lot and they are one of my closest friends.

Staying physically healthy is a major part of my daily life and hockey executes it. I usually have two to three practices a week and two games. My games and practices usually last for an hour long. Which is the amount of exercise a teenager needs per day. Hockey is a vigorous sport which means its a high pace, always moving sport. It’s not like baseball or gymnastics where it’s a low pace and isn’t constantly moving at all times. Sports that are vigorous means that your heart is beating at high rates majority of the time. This exercises the most important muscle in your body and shows the best results for weight loss. Hockey also helps me with the build-up of muscles. You use almost every muscle in your body such as your legs with skating, your arms with shooting your shoulders and core with hitting. It’s not like you use that muscle once, you use it every time you’re on the ice. This allows maintaining and build up of muscle. Hockey also improves not muscular envolved areas. Hockey improves my agility due to the sport envolves with sharp stops and fast acceleration. Hockey helps with my balance due to you are skating on slippery ice with less than a cm width of blades and you are being constantly shoved due to it’s a contact sport. Finally, hockey drastically improves hand-eye coordination, you need to be able to control the puck while maintaining your head up, skating at your full potential with other players slashing, shoving and hitting you at the same time. It’s complicated it’s hard and that’s why I love it.

Another reason why hockey is beneficial is the role it plays on my mental health. Mental health is crucial for teenagers. Stress, anxiety and other mental illnesses can develop. This is where hockey kicks in. When I’m on the ice my mind is completely cleared. All of the negative things fade away and all of the positive things come in. If I’m stressed with school, a calm shoot out practice in my basement relax’s my brain. That why having hockey contributing to my life obtains health benefits for my self.

My final reason is it pushes my limits. The is no sport out there that is even close to hockey. You play on a giant sheet of ice, you skate with razor-sharp steel blades, you shot a rock-solid rubber puck at a speed that ranges from 50 to 100km per hour. That definitely passes well above my comfort level which is why I love it. Hockey pushes my limits by pushing myself to be the fastest on the ice, strongest and smartest. There is no room for mistakes and its a skill based game.